The PREPaRE Curriculum

PREPaRE provides
school-based mental health professionals and other educational professionals
training on how to best fill the roles and responsibilities generated by their
participation on school safety and crisis teams. PREPaRE is one of the first comprehensive nationally available training curriculum developed by
school-based professionals with firsthand experience and formal training. The
curriculum is based on the assumptions that:

the skill sets of school-based professionals are best
utilized when they are embedded within a multidisciplinary team that
engages in crisis prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery;

school crisis management is relatively unique and as
such requires its own conceptual model; and

by virtue of their professional
training and job functions, school-based mental health professionals are
best prepared to address the psychological issues associated with school
crises.

Specifically, the PREPaRE model emphasizes that, as members of a school safety and crisis team, school mental health professionals must be involved in the following specific hierarchical and
sequential set of activities:

P—Prevent and PREPaREforpsychological trauma

R—Reaffirm physical health and perceptions of security and safety

E—Evaluate psychological trauma risk

P—Provide interventions

a—and

R—Respond to psychological needs

E—Examine the effectiveness of crisis prevention and intervention

The model also incorporates foundation knowledge provided
by the U.S. Departments of Education and Homeland Security.
Specifically, the PREPaRE curriculum describes
crisis team activities as occurring during the four states of a crisis: (a)
prevention, (b) preparedness, (c) response, and (d) recovery. It also
incorporates the incident command structure as delineated by the National
Incident Management System (NIMS).